Salty Brown Sugar Shortbread Recipe

Every holiday season I give out cookie boxes to my friends and family. Each box contains five or six different cookies, and while it’s hard to whittle it down to my favorite few, I almost always include a shortbread cookie. Shortbread is perfect for gifting, as it generally keeps well for several days.

I like to dress my shortbread cookies up a little with dark brown sugar and a sparkly sugar-coated exterior. For the past five years, I’ve included this shortbread in my boxes. They’re my ideal cookies: tender, with caramel notes from brown sugar, and are just salty enough. They are always a hit—so much so that my loved ones have started asking for the recipe. Read on for the techniques I use to make these cookies and for the full recipe. 

The Key Techniques for Making the Best Brown Sugar Shortbread

For shortbread that stays moister and fresher for longer, use brown sugar.

Shortbread is typically made with just butter, granulated sugar, flour, and salt. While classic shortbread cookies are delicious, their simplicity also means they’re great for riffs. In my recipe below, I swap granulated sugar for dark brown sugar, which not only adds a deep butterscotch flavor, but also makes for a softer cookie. Brown sugar contains molasses; the thick syrup is hygroscopic—which means it draws moisture to itself—so these cookies stay fresh and moist for days.

Incorporate baking soda. This recipe contains baking soda, which is not typically found in shortbread. Here, baking soda reacts with the mildly acidic brown sugar, giving the cookies a subtle lift for a shortbread that’s lighter and more tender than the average shortbread. 

Roll the logs tightly. The best thing about the slice-and-bake method is that it doesn’t require any special equipment for shaping the cookies. There’s no need for a rolling pin or cookie scoop—you just have to form the dough into two logs, wrap each tightly in plastic wrap, then refrigerate it. 

Slice-and-bake cookies can end up crumbly if the logs aren’t formed correctly, though, so the key to preventing your cookies from falling apart is to ensure the dough is rolled as densely as possible before you wrap it tightly in plastic. For the roundest possible cookies, roll each log of dough back-and-forth to even out the shape once they’re wrapped—the plastic will help hold everything in place. 

(If you want truly uniform, perfectly round cookies, you can also roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment until it’s a half-inch thick, chill it until firm, then use a round cutter to stamp out as many cookies as possible. It’s a method many pastry chefs use when making shortbread cookies, but since it’s slightly fussier, it’s not one I use in my recipe.)

Add some sparkle and crunch with sugar. Once the dough has chilled, all that’s left to do is slice the logs into half-inch thick rounds with a sharp knife, coat the cookies in sugar, and bake. While it’s not essential, coating the cookies in granulated sugar before baking gives them a sparkly, crispy exterior. I also like to sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of flaky salt for a little pop of savoriness.  

The beauty of these little cookies lies in their simplicity. They’re easy to make, require only a few ingredients, and have a rich, butterscotch-y flavor. While these cookies are a staple of my holiday cookie boxes, they’re really wonderful any time of year—whether as a gift or to enjoy yourself along with a hot cup of coffee or tea.

December 2024